Tarynn
Tarynn was born to a perfectly normal family of Aloes elves living in the northern part of Prayaga Island. The youngest of four, and the only girl, Tarynn was often unable or unwilling to participate in her elder brothers' rowdy activities and so became accustomed to occupying herself. She instead focused on exploring the strange world that is Prayaga Island, drawing the beautiful gardenesque scenery and describing it through poetry. With the world as her muse she tended to close herself off from other people, resulting in her having few friends outside of her immediate family. This idyllic childhood was interrupted soon after Tarynn's 19th birthday. While venturing along some of the more remote parts of the island's natural walkways she came across a human mage, who unleashed a smorgasbord of magical attacks and curses in an apparent attempt to defend himself. Only one curse actually stuck, and even then it only had a partial effect: essentially draining Tarynn's supply of good fortune, or 'luck'. The mage escaped, leaving Tarynn to discover the nature of her affliction on her return home. From then on Tarynn's presence seemingly brought nothing but misfortune to those around her. The great and seemingly unbreakable vine walkways that crisscross the island would sometimes snap without warning when she crossed, plunging her and anyone else on board towards the lethal ground. Plagues of boom bees infested the beautiful gardens of their village whenever she walked through them, and attacks from tonorions became commonplace. It was only through the quick wits and experience of her fellow elves that there were no fatalities caused by her misfortune. After much deliberation, the elders, with great regret, decided to 'temporarily' banish Tarynn from the island until the curse could be lifted, allowing them to research the spell unhindered. As a sign that this was not the end, and that she was still loved despite their forced separation, her mother tearfully gave Tarynn her favorite scintilla necklace, which she is now never seen without. Leaving the island, Tarynn drifted from place to place, finding no welcome anywhere because of the bad luck she brought; finally settling in self-imposed exile on the border of the Great rocky fields, in the forest behind Milkadis Temple. She lives in a small cave set slightly above a floodplain. Personality Tarynn has an unstable character, swinging between two extremes: how she'd like to be seen by others and how she really is. In the rare presence of others she tries to act gracious, elegant and refined, without trying to be very chatty. Think of how a butler/maid might act around their master; being very formal, dignified and polite, but not friendly in the typical sense. However, very few people are taken in by this facade as when she is struck by one of her many blows of bad luck this 'mask' slips and she'll let her true self loose. She becomes uncouth, waspish and pessimistic, bitterly cussing everyone and everything and cynically lamenting her circumstances. During some of these times she may well forget about the presence of whoever may have been accompanying her, which may lead to them overhearing a couple of choice remarks about them! These traits, along with her influence of misfortune and self-imposed isolation, make her difficult to be friends with. Although she is on a name-basis with some other giant predators she has no close friends to speak of. She is also extremely vain, and is riddled with insecurities about her own appearance. The biggest thorn in her side are her ears, which are swept back and stubby; a very unattractive feature for an elf. She has quite cold, sharp eyes, which some people find quite unsettling when she looks at them (it feels like a glare!) She is also notably poorly endowed due to her insufficient diet, and so chooses to cover up the area in question with a top and matching sarong woven from limpobo leaves (these wear out quickly, forcing her to spend a lot of her time replacing them.) Although her face is by all other measures beautiful her thin, underdeveloped body and unsettling eyes gives her an overall lack of sex appeal that keeps her at the level of an acquired taste. She is completely naive of all matters sexual, often becoming very confused by the actions of some of Felarya's more virulent predators. Tarynn claims to "choose" a life of solace so as not to inflict more misery on those around her; in reality she views it as a prison she can't escape. Too late she realized that she had squandered her childhood spending time alone in the forest rather than spending it with others. Although there are a few Felaryans who do seem willing to bare the brunt of her misfortune to spend time with her and be her friend, Tarynn intentionally distances herself and pushes them away emotionally, as thoughts of how much better off they would be without her plague her mind. Despite these circumstances she still hasn't given up hope; she longs to return home to her family and eagerly awaits the day the mages back on Prayaga Island discover a cure for her curse. Abilities As she was banished from her tribe before she could be properly schooled in the art of magic, Tarynn lacks the mage prowess that is so typical of her race. Rarely, she will accidentally release a burst of uncontrolled magic - however it is nearly always at an inconvenient time and never accomplishes anything useful! Despite this, years of hard graft dealing with the bad luck her curse brings has honed her survival skills to peak performance (even if most of her tactics are really just variations on how to retreat). She is extremely resourceful, and has developed a sort of sixth sense for danger; understandable given how many times she has been exposed to it. She is adept at tracking prey, often having to rely on it to find her food. Thanks to her runner's build she is also extremely quick, and is one of the fastest predators on two legs around. She is also a fine artist, poet and seamstress. Having spent her childhood drawing the landscape of Prayaga Island she has an excellent eye for color and detail; abilities she has been able to use in her crafting and weaving. Although her toolset for these hobbies is much less varied since her banishment her resourcefulness allows her to continue these interests even in her exile, if only during brief snatched moments of safety and well-being. She does the work for her own enjoyment, but sometimes wishes she had an audience who would appreciate it and fan her ego. She dabbles in poetry when the mood takes her; generally producing quite sombre and depressing sonnets, which suit her deep, throaty voice when reciting them. Hunting Habits As her bad luck negates most of her chances at getting food, Tarynn has learned to live off a variety of vegetation supplementary to her normal prey. She has a particular weakness for Oosoon Berries, finding their taste and effect irresistible; whenever she stumbles across them in the nearby Misty glade she will harvest and store as much as she can at the back of her cave. Citroise fruits are another favorite, to the point where some Felaryans have noted that she smells like them. Ultimately though she tends to survive off of telltale fruit, stam roots and trulps. Despite these compromises she still doesn't get enough food to fully sustain her, and as such is very thin. When she does find prey, she'll go to any lengths to catch it. One of her greatest assets in her arsenal is her persistence, leading her to give chase to prey normal lazier predators might not think is worth it. This repeated chasing, along many hastened retreats when presented with danger, has given her formidable speed. Having learned the hard way that playing with your food just increases the risk that you'll lose it again she will swallow any creature small enough (except elves and children) as quickly as she can. Due to the culture of her upbringing, the thought of treating any prey as anything other than her meal has never really occurred to her; stories of some of the weirder friendships in Felarya confuse her. She generally tries to feed off the streams of adventurers trying their luck in Milkadis Temple, tracking their movements and the normal routes they take. *Tarynn belongs to Simonlorimer. Contact Category:Characters Category:Elf Characters